Polymers and (macro)Molecular Materials, Soft Matter, and Complex Fluids
Welcome
Welcome to the homepage of the Osujilab at Penn. If you are looking for information about the NRT on Autonomous Experimentation for Soft Materials Research, please see the page here.
Soft materials and complex fluids are ubiquitous in natural and synthetic systems. Our interests lie in understanding and controlling the structure and dynamics of such soft matter. Through studies focused on interfacial phenomena, directed self-assembly, rheology and microfluidics, we advance structure-property relationships in colloidal suspensions, liquid crystals, surfactants, polymers and biological materials. We employ microscopy (optical, electron, atomic force), scattering (visible light, x-ray), rheology and other methods, along with some basic polymer and small molecule synthesis. Many of the systems we study have interesting applications as functional materials. We are particularly motivated by applications in clean water and clean energy generation, analytical separations, nanomaterials synthesis and engineering better complex fluids in many forms.
Recent Publications
The Effects of Morphology and Hydration on Anion Transport in Self-Assembled Nanoporous Membranes.
Christopher W. Johnson, Lizhu Zhang, Keira E. Culley, Sol Mi Oh, Douglas L. Gin, Geoffrey M. Geise, Amish J. Patel, Karen I. Winey, and Chinedum O. Osuji.
ACS Nano 2025 19 (2), 2559-2569. doi:10.1021/acsnano.4c14234
Spontaneous assembly of condensate networks during the demixing of structured fluids.
Y. Morimitsu, C. A. Browne, Z. Liu, P. G. Severino, M. Gopinadhan, E. B. Sirota, O. Altintas, K. V. Edmond, C. O. Osuji. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 121 (39) e2407914121 (2024).
doi:10.1073/pnas.2407914121.
Cu(II)-Organic Coordination Polymer Networks for Persistent Nitric Oxide Release in Tumor Therapy.
H. Jeong, N. K. Kim, D. Park, H. Youn, C. O. Osuji, J. Doh. Biomacromolecules (2024).
doi:10.1021/acs.biomac.4c01071
Design of Dendritic Promesogenic Ligands for Liquid Crystal-Nanoparticle Hybrid Systems.
Y. Ning, Z. Liu, S. Yang, Y. Morimitsu, C. O. Osuji, C. B. Murray. Chemistry of Materials (2023).
doi:10.1021/acs.chemmater.3c00057
